The Lone Weasel
Those who like to quote popular opinion should ponder the results of some other polls:
79% of Americans think that "creationism" should be taught alongside evolution in public schools; only 20% thought evolution should be taught without mentioning creationism. --"Survey Finds Support Is Strong for Teaching 2 Origin Theories," James Glanz, The New York Times, Mar. 11, 2000.
According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll-- 52% would allow the police to search without court order the homes of people suspected of selling drugs, even if some homes were searched by mistake 71% would make it against the law to show the use of illegal drugs in the movies 67% would allow police to stop cars at random to search for drugs 62% were willing to give up "a few" freedoms in order to curb drug use --quoted in Szasz T. Our Right to Drugs. New York: Praeger, 1992
According to a Gallup poll of Americans in July 1999-- 74% favor allowing public schools to display the Ten Commandments; 24% oppose 70% favor allowing daily prayer to be spoken in the clbuttroom; 28% oppose
According to a recent national poll, "Half of all Americans believe everything in the bible is literally true."--Newark Star Ledger 11-16-00.
About half of Americans said they would *not* vote for an atheist presidential candidate (Gallup Poll, Feb. 1999)
Don't have a cite, but another poll found that over half of all Americans didn't believe in most of the protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
So if you think that popular opinion is so significant, should it also be followed in these cases?
But of course using popular opinion as an argument is a form of argumentum ad numerum (appeal to popularity), one of the clbuttic fallacies in reasoning.
Nor is there any practical reason to value popular opinion unless you're a demagogue: For centuries, the vast majority of people thought that slavery was morally acceptable and that the sun went round the earth.